Wheels for paralyzed turtle

Jim Lee is a contributor to MAKE magazine, and is interested in turtles and bamboo. He built a set of wheels for an injured box turtle, shown here.

Little Bit, a young Eastern Box Turtle was hit by a car in September of 2000. Her shell was crushed and she was left partially paralyzed. There was no way she would ever be released to the wild as happens with most successful rehabs. I repaired her shell using velcro strips epoxied to anchor points on her carapace. After some weeks Little Bit seemed to have made a full recovery except for the use of her hind legs. So some wheels seemed to be the way to go. Some lightweight model airplane wheels on a wire frame did the trick. The removable wheels were secured by a velcro strip epoxied to her plastron. The velcro strips on the carapace were removed after four months. She was eating, drinking, and exploring all the rooms of my house. Eventually she was able to move around outside as well. She lived until early in 2002 when she died unexpectedly (and suddenly). After all she had been through I did not have the heart to order any kind of post mortem from the local vet school. I simply said goodbye and thanked her for what she had shared with me and others who met her.

In all seriousness, the turtle was probably eggbound. If her hind end was crushed, it might have constricted her cloaca enough to prevent her from laying eggs (or her contracting muscles were paralyzed). Turtles produce eggs without a need for fertilization first. (the males fertilize the eggs after they’re laid).

female turtles will sometimes just keep producing eggs, regardless of whether they are laid. If they stay inside her, they calcify (shells get thicker and harder) and just keep building up, crushing her internal organs. Turtles can’t really expand their bodies, so they quickly run out of internal room and suffocate or die of organ failure.

amazing to see the effort you took to save the animal’s quality of life…very admirable.

Sad Story, I agree with Jay the Turtleman.
soljb, thats total nonsense. for starters, that turtle would b 2 young judging by the size of it to have eggs in her, they don’t start layin till they’re around the age of 5 (in the wild). If the eggs are unfertalized eggs, they will pass them in the water, when the eggs have been fertalized, which happens during breeding, they will lay the egg in the ground. I have many turtles my self, some of which are rescue turtles

This story is very personal for me because I too rescued a turtle, one who had lost the use of all his legs. We replaced his legs with RC Car tires and mounted a motor to the top of his shell, one that responded to the upwards and downwards movement of his head by a series of wires and levers (for steering left and right). It was quite a sight to see him fly past at 30 mph, chasing the neighborhood kids around. We set up a few ramps after he showed a predilection for jumping off things, and he would spend hours hurtling himself like a little turtle superman into various piles of leaves and whatnot.

Nice try at sounding intelligent, my friend. But the notion that male box turtles fertilize the eggs after they’ve been laid is laughable. Turtles of all kinds mate just like people do. Do your homework before you spew your false facts.